Eight Petals
by Sherra
Summary: Before he was a prince he was human. This is his story.
1. Default Chapter

Author's notes!  
  
First of all, welcome to the first chapter of Eight Petals. If all goes well then I should be writing this at a fairly quick pace and it will be a fairly long fic before it is finished. As for whether I'm sticking with the anime or manga, my answer is a little bit of both. This fanfiction won't actually go up to the starting point of the anime or manga though will deal with some things that were explained in both. Not sure what else to put here.  
  
Eight Petals Chapter 1  
  
Shirohasu knew that his mother would be angry with him for staying at the planetarium so late again but tonight he didn't care. His uniform, usually kept clean and neat, was mud-splattered and had a long rip upon one sleeve. As Shirohasu neared his house he took a glance at his watch. 11:30. Maybe everyone would be asleep by now. Ignoring the front door, Shirohasu headed around the house, carefully climbing over the fence and padding up the stairs that led to the porch. He pulled his key out of his pocket and reached for the keyhole but before he could make it the door swung open.  
  
"You're late," said the narrow-eyed face of his younger sister. Since she was opening the door and not his mother he supposed that she had to be asleep. He wasn't sure which would be harder to deal with right now but he didn't have a choice anyway. Her sharp brown eyes saw the state of his clothes and widened considerably. "Mom is going to kill you! You've ruined your uniform! How did you do that? You." she trailed off as she noticed the red stain that was slowly spreading outwards from the cut on his jacket.  
  
"Its nothing," said Shirohasu quickly but his sister was quicker. She grabbed his uninjured arm and pulled him over to the kitchen table, shoving him down in a chair while she grabbed the first-aide kit. She took off his ruined jacket, being carefully not letting anything to snag at the wound. In the light from the lone ceiling lamp Shirohasu could see the cut from which the redness swelled. It wasn't deep. His sister seemed to have made the same conclusions from her relieved sigh.  
  
"You need to stop doing this!" she whispered with a voice high and strained. "Why do you always get yourself into fights? Mom really will kill you if she finds out about this!"  
  
As Shirohasu's sister cleaned the wound he was lost in thought. He was trying to remember what had happened but it only came back in shards. He had been walking back home late from star-gazing at the planetarium and seen a foreign-looking woman heading into an alleyway, followed by a large man holding something under his jacket. Shirohasu remembered hearing a scream, dashing into the alleyway, and then after. He supposed that he must have fought, otherwise he wouldn't be this scratched up. He wasn't dead, though, and he had a feeling that he would be much more hurt if he had lost the fight. So he had won. He had won and all he could remember was running into the darkness and the merest fragment of a whisper in his mind.  
  
"Choix," he found himself saying out loud, repeating what the strange voice had whispered to him.  
  
His sister blinked, startled at the strange word. "What is it?" she asked as she fastened the end of the bandage with a piece of medical tape.  
  
"Nothing," said Shirohasu as the brief memory of a whispered word floated away. As his sister began to move away he caught her hand and smiled at her. "You always take such good care of me, Anshi." With a brief smile she was gone, leaving Shirohasu to himself and the darkening night. 


	2. A Quest

Note: In this chapter the money used is going to be in American dollars even though Eight Petals is set in Japan. I just don't know the value of yen.  
  
Eight Petals Chapter 2  
  
Shirohasu was surprised. His mother's lecture hadn't been half what he had thought it would be. She barely raised her voice and all she did was talk to him about responsibility and safety. He shrugged vaguely to himself as he and Anshi entered the courtyard of their school, Chuugaku Middle School. Even when dressed in the same uniform as the other students Anshi and Shirohasu looked different. Unlike their pale-skinned classmates, both Anshi and Shirohasu were velvety brown. Shirohasu's large brown eyes watched from under wavy black hair and Anshi's face mirrored his. Both of them were very long-legged and slender, small-built forms hiding the strength that they both held.  
  
Shirohasu glanced behind him at Anshi. "I'm going to be heading in early so that I can get some studying done." Anshi cast him a wave before he headed inside the building. There was still about half an hour before school started. Anshi usually used this time to talk to her various friends but Shirohasu had to study. He was 15 and the high-school entrance exams were getting closer and closer every day. He never went to the nightly cram schools but wanted to at least have a slight chance of getting in somewhere good. It would make his mother happy. That was all that mattered.  
  
Finding ways of cheering his mother had been one of Shirohasu's pastimes since he was 8. That was when his father had left. When it became obvious that his mother wasn't in any shape to take care of the then 6-year-old Anshi Shirohasu had taken on the job. He had tried his best to help his mother pull through those bad times and his effort had paid off. Now, though his mother wasn't always what he'd call happy, she at least wasn't in the depression that his father had cast her into. He blinked as the bell rang above his head that would start summoning the children into the school. His zoning out had lost him his study time. Oh well. Too late to do anything about it now.  
  
The hours passed with a regular monotony. When it was finally their lunch hour Shirohasu headed outside, relishing the thought of stretching his legs in the warm sunlight. Shirohasu saw Anshi and began to move towards her but was thrown off his feet when someone went dashing into him from the opposite direction. He landed on his back; the grass prickling at his neck while a pair of big blue eyes looked into his own.  
  
"S-sorry!" the girl squeaked as she stood up and moved away from him. "It won't happen again!" She was gone before Shirohasu had gotten to his feet. He brushed grass from himself as he scanned the crowd for her, wondering where she had gone so quickly.  
  
"Her name is Haikana," said a familiar voice from behind him. Shirohasu turned around to see Anshi, seemingly searching the crowd herself. "She is in the class above mine and has been really skittery lately. I think it is because her aunt is sick or something."  
  
"Oh," said Shirohasu as he distractedly brushed at the last few clinging blades of grass. "She was in a hurry, wasn't she?"  
  
Anshi shrugged. "Maybe she has to meet a teacher or someone. I know that there is a boy she likes so she could be following him." She gave the crowd one last glance before sighing and dabbing at her forehead. "It's so hot out here. Could you lend me some change so I could buy a soda?"  
  
Shirohasu had been just thinking of that himself. "Yeah, sure. I should have plenty of-" he stopped abruptly as he stuck his hand in his pocket. The pocket that had so previously rattled with the money that it carried was completely empty.  
  
Anshi blinked at the confused look on Shirohasu's face. "Brother, what is wrong? Are you ok?"  
  
Shirohasu remembered the girl running into him and now remembered a slim hand sneaking into his pocket as well. "I'm fine, but." His mind traced back to the frightened look on the girl's face. Frightened of being caught. "But I think that I was just robbed." He turned and started jogging towards where he thought Haikana had gone. "I'll deal with it. You'll have to borrow money from someone else."  
  
Anshi watched after him with concern in her large, dark eyes. "Be careful, big brother."  
  
As Shirohasu ran, various scenarios ran through his mind. What should he do if he found her? Should he question her or just accuse? Should he be nice and ask for his money back or just grab? He decided that he'd at least give her a chance. Maybe he had lost the money somewhere else; maybe it really had been an accident. Or maybe she was just a thief. Shirohasu shook his head. He didn't actually know her but he didn't think that she was just stealing for fun, not with that look of terror on her face.  
  
He walked around a tree and stopped, pause to better hear a noise that was coming from somewhere above in the branches. Crying. He backed up a few paces and peered through the dense branches, seeing the charcoal black of their school uniform mixed with the browns and greens of the tree. It was Haikana. For a moment he stood there watching her, all of his previous thoughts blowing away with the wind. How could he accuse her when she was like this? He hadn't expected her to be crying. Shirohasu carefully began to climb the tree.  
  
Haikana didn't notice Shirohasu until he was almost level with her branch. She looked up with a small gasp and scooted a bit further out on her branch. Shirohasu stopped, not wanting her to get too far out. "Its ok," he said softly. "I'm not going to hurt you." He slowly went up another branch so that he was more or less level with her. She glanced over at him mistrustingly.  
  
"What do you want?" she said, her voice squeaking though she appeared to be making a great effort to calm herself.  
  
"Why are you crying?" asked Shirohasu, his large eyes filling with compassion and pity.  
  
"It's none of your business!" she squeaked, turning her head away from him so he wouldn't see the tears.  
  
"It might not be my business but I still want to know. Maybe I can help or- "  
  
"You can't," she said in a harsh croak. She hugged her knees up to her chest, barely keeping balance and with nothing to support her.  
  
"Come down and we'll talk," said Shirohasu with a note of urgency in his voice. If she fell from this height then she'd definitely brake something, maybe worse. When there was no response he climbed over to her branch and reached out to her. "Take my hand. I'll help you climb."  
  
Haikana shook her head but in doing so caused herself to wobble off balance, her eyes widening as she began to lean too far. Shirohasu's hand snaked out to steady her, both of their hearts racing at the near fall. "I'm coming," she said in a quiet voice as she allowed herself to be led down.  
  
Shirohasu breathed a sigh of relief as his last foot touched the ground but it turned to a sigh of irritation as he heard the school bell ring. "Right, we have to get back inside." He looked over to where Haikana stood by the tree, looking very small and frightened. He glanced back towards the school. He probably wouldn't miss anything too important if he missed his afternoon classes and he was more needed back here. He turned back to Haikana. "Or we could just stay outside." Haikana's face brightened visibly, her features softening a little. "Let's go for a walk," said Shirohasu as he began to lead the way across the grounds.  
  
He felt Haikana's eyes upon him as they went, heard her breathing change from the ragged gasps from before to paced and regular. It was she who broke the silence first, running a bit so that she could get in front of him. "Why aren't you mad?" she asked, her blue eyes lit by a flicker of emotion.  
  
Shirohasu glanced over at her, eyebrows moving up in an expression of mild surprise. "Mad? About what?"  
  
Haikana gave a small hiss of irritation. "You know! About." her voice grew quieter. "About your money. I took it and you know that."  
  
"Ah," said Shirohasu as he started walking again. "I didn't want to upset you again by bringing it up."  
  
"And what makes you think I'd be upset for?" she asked as she walked alongside him, her eyes large and questioning.  
  
He glanced over at her, watching the way her dark hair fanned out in the breeze. "Because I know that you didn't really want to do it and it's why you were crying in that tree."  
  
"That wasn't why!" she snapped at him before she even realized what she was saying. "It was because." she trailed off, unable to complete the sentence.  
  
"Because?" gently prompted Shirohasu.  
  
"Because of my grandmother," said Haikana, tears once again gathering in her eyes. "She- She is sick but we don't have enough money to get her good treatment. That's why I steal! That's why I took your money! To help her!" Her tone for the last few sentences were defiant, almost asking Shirohasu to grow angry with her. Instead he smiled softly.  
  
"If you had told me I would have given you the money. How much more do you need?"  
  
"About five hundred dollar," said Haikana in a defeated tone. "It might seem like a small amount but my family doesn't make much money. I have a lot of siblings and our grandparents live with us, so there isn't a lot to go around."  
  
"Yeah, well with only one parent my family isn't doing great either. I wish that I could help you but I don't have that much money and I doubt that mom would give me it."  
  
"Right," said Haikana in a voice dangerously close to tears again. "Its ok, you tried and didn't yell at me even though I stole your money."  
  
As Haikana turned away from Shirohasu he was filled with a sudden inspiration. He took her shoulders and turned her back around so that she was facing him again. "No, I haven't tried yet. I'll get that money for you no matter what, ok?"  
  
Haikana's eyes widened, hope making them seem all the brighter. "Really?"  
  
"Of course." 


	3. A Way

Eight Petals Chapter 3  
  
The next day at school was a very pre-occupied one. Shirohasu was racking his brain to figure out something to earn money quick. He could try to find a job but he didn't think that he could make enough money quickly enough to be much of a help. While he was supposed to be listening instead he thought up ways to get money, everything from winning a lottery ticket to holding the principal of the school hostage. He sighed as he rejected a scheme that involved himself and a high-security jewel vault. He had to be serious. Even if bank robberies sounded great in his head there were no way that he'd be able to pull one off, not to mention that his conscience wouldn't be able to live through stealing. There had to be something.  
  
"Hey, Shirohasu," said someone from his left. Shirohasu ignored them, wondering if they would stop if he didn't pay attention. A sharp poke in his side told him otherwise and he somewhat irritably turned to glare at the person sitting next to him, Lieko.  
  
"What?" he snapped.  
  
Lieko's eyes widened with exaggerated hurt. "Nothing. Just ignore me. I was probably just talking to myself anyways."  
  
Shirohasu nerved himself to calm down. Taking out his stress on other people wouldn't help his situation. "I'm sorry, bad mood. What is it?"  
  
Lieko shrugged. "Just wondering if you were going to be fencing in the big competition. You used to be really into fencing before you became a lunatic over all that star stuff."  
  
Fencing competition? Shirohasu hadn't even known there was one. "No, I haven't fenced in a while and would probably just lose on my first bout."  
  
"Nah, you'd do fine. Half the people who come to these things are all newbies and you'd beat them in an instant. You used to be really good."  
  
Shirohasu glanced at him with dry amusement. "Used to be. I haven't so much as looked at a sword in months. There is no way that I'm starting up again by jumping into a tournament."  
  
Lieko shrugged again and turned to face forward. His expression turned wistful as his head sank down into his hands. "I wish that I was good enough to win one of those things. The girls are all over the fencing team which you quit, by the way." Shirohasu almost missed the next sentence as he started delving back into his own thoughts again. "Not to mention in this one they're paying big bucks to the winner."  
  
Shirohasu snapped back around. "What did you say?" he asked loudly enough for his neighbors to give him reproachful looks.  
  
"That you quitted the fencing club? Well, what did you expect after missing the meetings for three months. I can't believe that you-"  
  
"No, about the prize."  
  
"Ah," Lieko sank back into his chair with a smugly amused look on his face. "So, invite you to a fencing match and you're bored but throw money into the deal and you jump into action? Really, I thought better of you."  
  
"No," toned Shirohasu distractedly. "Its for someone else. You don't happen to remember how much the prize is, do you?" To win this he would definitely have to skip the planetarium for a few nights to practice his fencing but if he could win the money fencing he could help Haikana.  
  
"Um, five hundred dollars, I think," said Lieko as he chewed thoughtfully on the end of his pencil.  
  
"You two, be quiet!" snapped their teacher.  
  
Though Shirohasu was still ignoring his teacher it was with a lighter heart. He still remembered most of his old fencing moves and as long as he could get some practice time in he might just win!  
  
Unfortunately, this was not the case.  
  
"The competition is WHEN?" hissed Shirohasu to Lieko's uncomfortable face.  
  
"Tomorrow. Hey, don't glare at me like that! I thought it was next week! Don't worry, though. They accept latecomers so you'll be able to enter."  
  
Shirohasu made a quick sweep of the students to see if he could find Haikana before turning back to Lieko. "Are you coming?"  
  
"I thought I made that clear. No. I stink with a sword even more than I stink with anything else." His manner turned crafty and he glanced slyly at Shirohasu. "You will be giving me a percentage if you win, right? I am the one who told you about it."  
  
"No, of course not," said Shirohasu as he spotted Haikana talking to a group of friends. "I'll see you later." He began to walk towards her but was intercepted on the way by someone else. "Anshi," he said as his sister walked up.  
  
He could tell without even asking that Anshi was annoyed at him for something. There was always something in her stance, the way that she narrowed her eyes like an angry viper that alerted him. "So, where are you going?"  
  
Shirohasu saw her eyes flick over to Haikana and knew that somehow Anshi knew where he had been all yesterday afternoon. "I was going to talk to someone." It wasn't a lie but it wasn't the whole truth either.  
  
"To her?" asked Anshi with one long finger pointing acusedly towards Haikana.  
  
There was no point in hiding it. "Yes, to her."  
  
"And why?"  
  
"I told you, I want to talk to her."  
  
"About what?" Shirohasu knew that if he didn't do something soon this could turn into an all-out confrontation. If anything got Anshi angry it was the thought of him being with some other girl. Her over-protectiveness had always gotten on his nerves but today he wasn't going to let it stop him.  
  
"Anshi, I know that you're mad and I'm sorry but I have to go talk to her now." Before Anshi could think of something else to say he walked past her. "I'll talk to you about it later."  
  
Haikana gave Shirohasu a happy glance as he approached and quickly separated from the pack of girls. "Hi," she said a little bit too quickly.  
  
"There is good news and bad news," said Shirohasu. "I've found a way that I could earn the money but it isn't guaranteed."  
  
"Isn't guaranteed?" Haikana raised one eyebrow as if wondering how anything could be unguaranteed for him.  
  
"It's a fencing competition. I used to be good at fencing but am out of practice and the competition is tomorrow. If I win I'll have the money but if I don't. . ." He saw her disappointed look and quickly added, "Then I'll find another way."  
  
"Where is it and when does it start?"  
  
"Its at the fencing school and people are supposed to start arriving at about 10:00 in the morning."  
  
"Good. I'll meet you there."  
  
Shirohasu cocked his head, an expression of surprised confusion on his face. "Eh?"  
  
"I'll meet you there! You're doing this for me so the least I can do is to be there to see it."  
  
"Ah," said Shirohasu a bit awkwardly. He hadn't expected her to come along with him and wasn't sure what he thought about it. He knew that he was going to be a bit rusty at first and didn't exactly want someone seeing him in that condition. But. she had a point and he didn't think he could stop her if she really wanted to come. She was fragile but also very strong willed, like the few flowers that survived through winter's frost. Where did that come from? He asked himself.  
  
Haikana was looking very cheerful now. "Thanks for all your help. I'll see you tomorrow!" she turned around and was soon back within her circle of friends. Shirohasu was left with a blank look on his face and a sinking feeling in his stomach. What if he lost on his first bout? What if he couldn't remember how to fence? Nervous thoughts flitted through his mind as he started to walk home. He had a few hours to practice today and then nothing in between himself and the fencing floor tomorrow.  
  
Ah, the prices of nobility. 


End file.
